Starling Car WashorChange is in the Air![Not original title--it came
from cyberspace too!]

A Bird Story from Cyberspacesent our way by Glenn Barlow
who received it from an unknown source, andsubmitted to all-creatures by Connie Young - 13 Jul 2002

Bill owns a company that manufactures and installs car
wash systems. Magic Wand Car Wash Systems
just in case you want to buy one. Bill's
company installed a car wash system in Frederick, Md. for a gentleman.

Now understand that these are a complete system including
the money changer and money taking machines.

The problem started when the new owner complained to Bill
that he was losing significant amounts of money from his coin machines each
week. He went as far as to accuse Bill's employees of having a key to the
boxes and ripping him off. Bill just couldn't believe that his people would
do that. So they setup a [photo] trap for the
thief.

Well, they caught the thief in the act! Scroll down to see
the thief.

The bird had to go down in the machine and
back up to get to the money!

That's three quarters he has in his mouth!
(Below)

Another amazing thing Bill told us is that
it was not one bird; there were several working together.

Once they identified the thief, they found
over $4000 in quarters on the roof of the car wash and more under a nearby
tree.

Editor Note:
This is not a story of a gang of criminal starlings, but a story of
curiosity about some birds and their attraction to shiny objects. (We have
heard of ravens, crows, and an unknown tropical bird taking and collecting
shiny objects, too.)

We surmise that a starling
was attracted to the glint of the sun on a quarter that a person was putting
into the machine, or when taking out his or her change. Seeing the place where the shiny objects
"appeared", the starling went to investigate, and discovered that he
(males seem to do this to attract a female) could remove the quarter and
take it back to his nest or courting place.

Not wanting to be out-romanced, other starlings learned from the original "inventive" fellow how
to get "their own" quarters, which shows the intelligence and
learning ability of birds.

Feather Forestwalker sent us the following explanation:

Starlings will clear out a chosen nest cavity before
attempting to attract a mate through song and wing-waving. This is a male
starling in the photo (noted by the blue base at the beak - a female's would
be pink, no kidding), and when he is finished clearing a cavity he will sit
and sing and wing-wave until a female is attracted. Unfortunately for this
male starling, his efforts at clearing his chosen cavity were thwarted by
all the customers at the car wash. :) Poor birdie. He's not a relative of
the crow, magpie, jay or raven and is therefore not as attracted to colorful
or shiny objects (as even the Australian Bower birds are), but instead, had
found what he thought was the "perfect" nest cavity in which to raise a
family. He just kept clearing it out every day and if the folks who'd caught
him on camera had pointed their camera instead at a high point nearby during
his "intermissions," they would have seen him sitting there singing and
wing-waving. . .until the next round of "debris removal".